


Rome, Season 1, Episode 3, An Owl in a Thornbush

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Rome (TV 2005)
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s01e03 An Owl in a Thornbush, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 01, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:02:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24858079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and the rest of the series. Complete.





	Rome, Season 1, Episode 3, An Owl in a Thornbush

Open to Atia whipping a slave with Brutus standing nearby. Coming in, Octavian asks her what’s wrong.

Brutus explains about Caesar’s treason and adds, with only one legion, it’s not just treason, it’s suicidal treason.

Atia sits down, and the slave politely asks if she’s through.

Elsewhere, with Cato and Pompey, Pompey reminisces about an old battle of his. Uncaring, Cato forcibly changes the subject to strategy. Pompey assures him Pompey’s legions will crush Caesar’s.

Meanwhile, the 13th is marching. Caesar orders Pullo and Vorenus to go nail a proclamation to the Senate door along with reading it to any civilian they come across. They’re to defend themselves in the case of resistance, but they’re also barred from raping, pillaging, and burning.

The duo leaves, and Caesar asks Antony why Vorenus is so morose. Antony explains about Vorenus’s narrow worldview and his belief they’re committing a terrible crime. When Antony voices his opinion it’s only a crime if they fail, Caesar tries to give a speech about the rightness of their actions, and Antony further makes it clear he’s approaching this from a strictly amoral standpoint: There’s winning and losing, not right or wrong.

Caesar asks if Vorenus can be trusted, and Antony vouches for Vorenus’s loyalty.

At the Vorenii household, coming in, a man refuses to leave despite Niobe’s protests. Going over to the baby, he declares he needs to see his son. She further tries to get him to leave, and he insists Vorenus will be dead soon and she’ll love him, again. Crying and giving the impression she still does, she orders him to leave, and he kisses her.

Vorena E walks in, and the man quickly leaves. Scolding her mother, Vorena E suggests they could tell Vorenus the truth. Niobe, however, knows her husband much better than Vorena E knows her father, and yanking her daughter down next to her, she declares without exaggeration, “He will kill us all.”

At a campfire, Vorenus and Pullo awkwardly talk about Vorenus’s troubled marriage. Vorenus says he loves Niobe, and if she doesn’t love him back, he’s nothing but her slave.

This is an incredibly unhealthy way of looking at things and an even unhealthier way of approaching his relationship. My advice would be to not be the type of man who’d kill her, her infant son, and possibly their two daughters for anything but especially not for legitimately thinking she was a widow and trying to move on with her life.

Pullo asks why this matters if they’re all going to be dead soon. Vorenus wants offerings made for him and wine poured on his grave.

Question: Does he intend to sneak out of camp, go to her, magically fix things, and then, come back to die? He left things on a bad note, and so, Pullo has a point.

Pullo nicely promises to do all of this. Vorenus is thankful but points out the little issue of Pullo being dead, too.

At the Julii household, Atia goes to talk to Timon. He kisses her hand. She isn’t impressed with his cologne. She’s having a party and wants him to get more guards for the villa. He advises her to lay low, and her response is, “Perfume, advice, what next?”

If she’s making a dig at his possible homosexuality, she should remember his happiness at sleeping with her. If it’s about him being supposedly effeminate, the question arises of why she wants him to protect her if she believes effeminate men to be incapable of such things.

He agrees to get more men, but the price has gone up. She agrees to pay him more, but he makes it clear he wants her sexual favours in return. She agrees to give him payment after he’s done his job properly.

Meanwhile, Pullo, Vorenus, and some other men come across a gathering of Pompey’s men. Vorenus expresses his relief his father is dead so he isn’t around to witness his son die a traitor’s death. Everyone attacks.

It seems all of Pompey’s men manage to run away before they’re harmed, though.

Speaking of, Pompey talks to his men, and it turns out they’re screwed. He suggests a tactical retreat to the south. Cato is vehemently against the idea of leaving the city.

At the Julii party, someone throws a stick of fire through the roof, and it lands right in the middle of a shallow pool/tub of water. Heh.

Atia declares she’d stab Caesar in the neck if he were here. Octavian tries to voice his opinion on how Caesar actually has the upper hand, but as usual, Atia is in no mood to listen to her prodigious son. Calm but impatient of her continuing melodrama, Brutus points out he and his mother haven’t abandoned the Juliis.

Of course, then, Brutus implies the only reason they haven’t jumped ship is due to them not wanting to come across as being easily changeable in convictions and simply following the most popular, dominant force.

Elsewhere, Pompey, Cornelia, and the Pompey children get ready to leave. Cornelia reminds her husband to empty the treasury, and apparently, historically, Pompey and the others simply left the treasury untouched without seeming to even think about taking it. He orders a man to go do so.

Outside, in a liter, Cornelia shows herself to be an affectionate wife and mother. She gently encourages the children to think of this as a game. Pompey motions for her to come talk to him privately, and he’s a decent husband when he apologises. She says there’s no need and that she doesn’t mind some adventure. He promises her all will be well, and she sincerely answers, “I have no doubt.”

They separate. She goes in the liter with the children, and he goes on a horse.

At the Julii house, the crowd outside is trying to beat down the door. Atia graciously extends an invitation for the Junii family to spend the night. They accept.

The treasury is emptied, but it turns out the servants are keeping the money for themselves. They kill one of the men who protests.

Meanwhile, Vorenus and Pullo are walking, and Pullo claims, despite what they might say, women get most aroused by the warm heart of an enemy. He also suggests Vorenus talk to her, and there’s a joke about the difficulties men and women have in communicating with each other in all this. Another suggestion is Vorenus tell Niobe she’s beautiful every time he sees her.

Moving on to sexual advice, Pullo starts to explain about the clitoris, and Vorenus suspiciously asks how Pullo knows this about Niobe. Disbelieving, Pullo quickly explains all women have them.

Barring rare deformities, surgical removal, and pre-op trans women, true, but also, it would be just Niobe’s luck she’d be one of the women who doesn’t respond to clitoral stimulation and would have to deal with Vorenus’s frustrated insistence something was wrong with her.

This is interesting look at Pullo, however.

Elsewhere, one of the men who emptied the treasury captures a woman.

At the Julii house, the men are still beating on the door. Atia is arranging for who shall kill whom. She tells a slave he must kill himself after killing her, and he agrees.

She asks Octavian who he would prefer to kill him, and he makes her proud by petulantly declaring he’s old enough to commit suicide without assistance, thank you very much. Servilia thanks Atia for her offer of assistance but says she and Brutus can figure things out themselves. Octavia has no objections to being killed, but she doesn’t want her mother to be the one to do so.

I absolutely love this scene. It’s satisfies my craving for black humour.

Whilst Octavia and Atia are arguing, Octavian yells at them, “Listen!”

The pounding has stopped, and Timon cautiously goes out. There’s graffiti all over the doors and walls, but the streets are completely empty.

In the square, the newsreader announces Pompey has left the city. He’s also issued a command all noble men to do the same. Those who stay are traitors.

There’s a shot of the nobles leaving. Food is thrown at them.

In the complex, Niobe and a neighbour are trying to secure the Vorenii house. In the process, they talk about Vorenus, and it’s established, Niobe does want him to come back safely, but she’s having trouble loving him.

At the Junii house, Brutus rants about the awkward position they’re in and how there’s no middle ground. He expresses his love for Caesar and disagreement for what he’s doing. After some more pacing, he muses, “The Republic is more important than any friendship. Do you agree?”

She gently says, “It’s your decision.”

“Pompey, then.”

He tells her to start packing, and she explains she plans to say.

Brutus is another character I feel sorry for. He’s not a whole person. He places his mother’s happiness and ideas above his own, and what Servilia can’t fill, he turns to alcohol for. Later, Caesar unwittingly ensures Servilia will never give him a chance to find himself and carve out an actual life for himself.

In this scene, however, instead of exploiting his emotional dependence on her, she gives him love and support but refuses to make the decision for him. It’s a shame she didn’t take this approach later. If she had, Brutus might have found the strength to be his own person and truly make his own decisions.

He’s angry, but she calms him down. They part on tearful but loving terms.

At the Julii house, Octavia sneaks out, and Atia’s old slave tells Atia. She promises she has a boy following Octavia. The slave leaves, and Timon climbs into bed. Atia insists he fetch his men, and rather than assume it’s for something kinky, Timon automatically knows she has another job for him.

Over at Glabius’s, it’s revealed he’s a Pompeian, and Octavia wants him to leave before he’s hurt. He promises he’ll be gone by sunrise. They have sex. Later, after she’s left, Timon and his men surrounded Glabius. At first, he thinks he’s being robbed. When told otherwise, he simply states, “Atia.”

Timon says he’ll give him a moment to speak to any deities he’d like to. Glabius asks for one favour: Let his men live.

The favour is denied, and Glabius orders a slave to hand over their sword. Once they do, he’s killed attacking Timon.

At the Vorenii house, looking worriedly out the window, Niobe sings as she rocks the baby.

Back to the duo, lying near a campfire, they have a philosophical/religious discussion about the stars.

At the Julii household, Atia is giving money to some neighbours in the least charitable way possible.

Inside the Pompey liter, Cornelia is sitting next the little girl and holding the boy in her lap. Walking, Cato comes up to Pompey’s horse to ask where Pompey’s servant/slave is. Pompey has faith he’ll come.

Meanwhile, Vorenus is uneasy about the fact no one has yet to stop them. Pullo is happy to accept good luck as it comes, but Vorenus thinks the deities have abandoned Rome. Pullo suggests Mars was just on the toilet, and Vorenus is unamused and offended.

They come across the thieves. Vorenus calls them drovers, and Pullo makes eyes at the captured woman. The thieves tell them about Pompey leaving. Pullo wants to buy the woman, but she’s not for sale. Vorenus asks what’s in the wagon, and not exactly believing their answer of grain, he calls them soldiers.

They deny being soldiers, but when Vorenus points out they’re wearing soldier boots, Pullo starts to go for his knife. Vorenus’s hand has been near his own the whole time, but I didn’t realise it was because he suspected them of this.

Everyone fights, and during this, the oxen pulling the abandoned wagon the woman is tied to start moving.

Pullo couldn’t have taken two second to cut the rope? Her hands would have still been bound. He could’ve probably easily caught up to her after he got through killing the thieves.

Meanwhile, Atia is giving further so-called charity.

Then, a servant whispers something to her, and she quickly leaves. Puzzled, Octavia follows, and Atia puts on a show of angry yelling. Octavia sees Glabius’s corpse.

At the city, Vorenus moans about the fact the Republic has supposedly fallen.

“Yet, the sky is still above us, and the Earth still below. Strange,” Pullo responds.

Vorenus insists the deities will take their time in tormenting them. Wanting to try to find the woman, Pullo expresses concern for her, but Vorenus insists they do their duty.

“You are a mean bastard, that’s your problem,” Pullo says. “No love in you. You can talk sweet as you like to Niobe, it won’t do you any good. She won’t believe a word.”

At the Julii house, Octavia has been sleeping or unconscious, and Atia expresses relief she’s now up. Stroking her cheek, she offers water. “Poor baby.”

Realising Glabius’s death wasn’t a dream, Ocavia looks suspiciously at her mother. Atia realises her daughter suspects her, and looking Octavia straight in the eye, she says, “Daughter, I swear, on the masks of all my ancestors, I had nothing, nothing, to do with the killing of Glabius.”

In response, Octavia launches herself into Atia’s arms. Making his presence known from the doorway known, Octavian asks Atia who she thinks did kill Glabius. Instead of pointing out his Pompeian status and blaming a Caesarean faction of finding him before he could leave, Atia gives a weak answer of, “It could have been anyone.”

Meanwhile, Vorenus nails the proclamation to the Senator door with Caesar’s VO reading it. He’s not trying to gain unlawful powers, and only those who declare themselves his enemy are considered so. As long as protest is peaceful, he won’t harm or confiscate property from the protesters. He promises total amnesty to those who raised arms against him but now regret it. However, those who continue using violence against him will have the favour returned.

Vorenus starts to leave. “I’ve done my duty, and I’ve sinned enough. I resign.”

“That’s desertion.”

Laughing, Vorenus replies, “I’m a traitor and a rebel. Why not a deserter, as well?”

“You can’t just leave the 13th.”

Sighing, Vorenus hands his sword over. “Goodbye, Pullo.”

At a shrine, Vorenus makes a blood sacrifice asking for Niobe to love him as he loves her.

Unless he wants his food poisoned, this might not be the best thing to ask for.

Meanwhile, Niobe is praying, too. Vorenus places a gentle hand on her shoulder, she starts, and he apologises for scaring her.

Next, she’s washing his feet, and he says her she’s beautiful. Then, he has sympathetic speech where he notes they married young, he soon left for war, and now, she’s a woman. He states being a soldier is all he understands. He acknowledges he’s been cold, sullen, and untrusting but assures her he does have feelings. “I can change.”

I’m sure there are some people who have decided to change for someone else and turned out happier and better for it, but usually, trying to change for someone else isn’t a good thing. Ideally, people need to decide for themselves they want to change and work on changing into a person they’re happy with rather than who someone else is.

Vorenus does love Niobe, but soldiering is his calling, and Pullo is his soulmate. Niobe can never return his love as long as she fears her death and the death of the children, and even if he found out and promised not to hurt any of them, she’d still spend the rest of her life terrified of the day he’d break his promise.

He swears on the life of his grandson he’ll change if she’ll give him the chance. Then, he tells her, if she won’t give him the chance, he’ll leave without protest.

I believe him, and this is what truly makes me believe he does love her. Usually, the love is unhealthy, but here, it’s not.

Trying not to cry, she says, “It is I who have done wrong.”

He asks, “How so?”

And maybe, if she’d told him, here, he would have done what he knew in his heart to be right rather following societal demand. However, with good reason, she’s too scared. She does care for him, she does want her girls to have their father, and so, unable to stop the tears, she starts to imply she hasn’t been a loving enough wife.

Gently pulling her up, he puts his hands on her face. “Past is gone.”

She nods, but she’s always going to worry for the day it all comes out. She doesn’t want him dead, but the only thing that can make her feel safe and give her a chance at happiness is his death.

They hug.

Meanwhile, Pullo finds the woman lying on the ground. Scaring her, he withdraws his knife, but all he does is gently cut the ropes. Then, turning his back and leaving her on the ground, he looks inside the wagon, and the gold is revealed.

I wonder if he was intentionally giving her a chance to leave. If he’d turned around to find her running or even just crawling away, he might have let her go.

Hearing people coming, he picks her up, puts her in the wagon seat, shoos his horse away, covers his uniform with a cloak, and tries to pull the stubborn oxen.

It turns out those people he heard are Caesar and his men. Antony expresses his admiration for Caesar’s calmness. “I’m glad I appear so,” Caesar answers.

They see the wagon in the distance but think nothing of it.

Fin.


End file.
